Uplands photo competition makes international splash

This is an archived press release

Winners have been announced for the Moors for the Future Partnership’s 2nd photography competition - which was inundated with more than 700 entries from 11 countries around the globe.

The competition – which highlights the importance of healthy uplands for improving water quality and reducing flood risk - welcomed images from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.

Photographs taken by Valerii Romanov from Russia and Ben Roebuck from the UK have been hailed as the winners, after judges sifted through a flood of high quality images.

Valerii’s image came top in the ‘adults’ category, capturing white water cascading through moody moorland landscape in the Scottish highlands.

Water droplets forming beads on a delicately balanced oak leaf, caught the judge’s eye in Ben’s winning shot in the ’15 and under’ category.

The winning images were selected by wildlife photographer and BBC Springwatch regular contributor Wildlife Kate who described Valerii Romanov’s winning photo as: “A dramatic and atmospheric shot, carefully composed to create a real sense of the conditions on our moorland uplands…[it] transports you to the location and makes you appreciate this intense landscape.”

Ben Roebuck’s image was chosen as: “A super shot. Great composition and rich colours suggest the dampness of this environment, and are enhanced by the droplet-covered leaf.”

The competition is part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Community Science project run by Moors for the Future Partnership.

Since 2003 the Partnership has been working to protect the most degraded moorland landscape in Europe, and raise awareness of how vital it is to conserve the internationally important Blanket Bog habitat of the South Pennine Moors Special Area of Conservation.

Project manager Sarah Proctor said: “After the success of last year’s competition we were delighted that this year’s was even more popular. The images beautifully illustrate that no matter where we live in the UK, we’re all linked to the uplands through the water that falls there.”

Ian Harper from United Utilities – which provides part-funding for the Partnership – added: “The beauty of water in the uplands is perfectly captured by these winning images. Uplands are a major source of fresh drinking water for millions of people across the UK and healthy uplands help to improve water quality at source before it’s treated and sent to our homes.”

The winner of the ‘adults’ category first prize is a high resolution bird box camera system courtesy of Gardenature, whilst the prize for the age ‘15 and under’ category is a Nikon Coolpix waterproof digital camera courtesy of Harrison Cameras.